The Construction of Witchcraft in Early Modern Denmark, 1536-1617

This book examines how the experience of witchcraft developed and evolved from the Lutheran Reformation of Denmark in 1536 to the celebration of the Lutheran centennial of 1617.

As well as exploring witchcraft, this volume is a portrait of Denmark and how religion and politics in the 16th and 17th centuries were impossible to separate. It was in this period from 1536 to 1617 that witchcraft went from an offence condemned in the Bible and prohibited in the medieval Law of Jutland, to being described in detail as the worst of crimes. Witchcraft evolved from being defined as imposing harm to someone or something, to being a mockery of God. Approaching the theme from the new history of experience, this book refers to the process of the construction of witchcraft as a crime. Contributions draw on a wide range of textual and visual sources, and bring together court records, sermons, legal regulations and correspondence with pamphlets, devotional literature and demonological treaties. The book is the first of its kind that aims to explain how this development occurred.

This volume is useful for undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars, as well as non-specialist readers interested in the history of witchcraft, magic and alchemy, women’s and gender history and European history.